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Patricia Kay Youngson: Cycling two abreast on city streets should be illegal

Posted:
05/11/2016 07:05:05 PM MDT

I think it is great that the city of Boulder has bike lanes. And I appreciate the bicyclists who are helping decrease the plethora of traffic and its emissions. The car lanes had to be narrowed to do this but that's workable. The problem is that some bicyclists choose to ride side by side in these lanes. And it is legal "when riding two abreast will not impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic." Unfortunately it is rare that this practice does not impede traffic.

Look at the facts. I measure the bike lanes from inside white line to inside white line at five feet. An individual cyclist takes up three feet measuring about two feet for the handle bars plus about another foot for both extending elbows (six inches each). Thus if the bicyclists are riding side by side (and elbow to elbow) they will take up six feet. So they are already a foot over the line.

Another state law is that a car should keep three foot away when passing a cyclist. This is not practical or even possible when there is a steady stream of cars to the left and ahead and behind. I encountered this situation the other day. I prayed and did my best to go between the cars on my left and the bicyclist on my right. Luckily, and providentially, no one was hit. The last thing any motorist wants to do is to hit a bicyclist.

The question is, why is the practice (fortunately rare) legal at all? It is not safe, particularly for the cyclist. And why would any bicyclist choose to do this? Is it the youthful sense of invulnerability? The city needs to make riding two abreast illegal. Of course, it would help if bicycles had licence plates.

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